Finally figured out the secret to those "nasty" carbide sharpeners.

Y

yepimonfire

Joined
Nov 7, 2013
Messages
466
I've always avoided them like the plague because they leave huge burrs and an edge that looks like a saw, about the only thing i've used them for was an adjustable one to reprofile quickly. Today i was goofing around with one on a knife I was trying to reprofile after grinding the serrations off. I usually use moderate pressure because if I don't, it doesn't really feel like the carbide is biting into the edge enough to take off any metal, today I decided to see what would happen if i used very light pressure after reading about someone who claims he gets a razor edge that will cleanly cut paper, and to my surprise it produced a straight, non ragged edge that had no burr and would cleanly slice paper. Perhaps most of the horror stories are really just terrible technique and way too much pressure. It did take a bit more time to go from totally dull to sharp, like 40 passes vs the 10-15 with heavy pressure, but that's still not that bad. It also didn't produce giant curled metal shaving as usual, very small flakes like what you;d expect after taking a bastard file to an edge. 20 light passes across the ceramic side and I had an entirely usable edge.
 
As a freehand waterstone sharpener, (I didn't use use a guided or pull-through sharpener since the age of 10). I can only say that any decent pull-through sharpener can achieve an usable edge. Period.

However, the quality of the edge can leave a lot to be desired. On a microscopic level it will leave a "wave" at the bevel. An inconsistent angle, if you will.
 
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